Poll: 4 out of 10 Americans Want Trump Impeached

(CN) – A new poll released Friday shows that 42 percent of Americans want President Donald Trump impeached and removed from office.

The CNN/SSRS poll, which pooled together answers from 1,012 respondents, showed a level of support for impeachment not seen since 1974 when a Harris poll revealed 43 percent of Americans said they supported impeachment of President Richard Nixon during the Watergate scandal.

While the number of Americans who want a sitting president out of office has a baseline level, it is notable that Trump’s impeachment rating is high, compared to former President Barack Obama’s impeachment rating high at 33 percent and George W. Bush at 30 percent.

Not even Bill Clinton, who was impeached in 1998 but never removed from office, reached more than 29 percent.

The poll asked respondents about the main issues surrounding the president, namely the Russia investigation, Trump’s alleged charitable foundation violations, and an assessment of how Special Counsel Robert Mueller is faring over a year into his investigation.

According to the poll, 35 percent said they believed the investigation into Russian interference in U.S. elections is mainly an effort to discredit Trump’s presidency, with 68 percent of Republicans agreeing. Another 55 percent said it’s a serious matter that should be fully investigated.

A third of those polled think that Trump did something illegal in the handling of his charitable foundation, with only 18 percent of the opinion that he didn’t do anything wrong.

As for Mueller’s job performance, Americans are split. While 39 percent of Americans said they didn’t approve his managing of the Russia investigation, 41 percent said they were satisfied with his work and 21 percent had no opinion.

The disparity in Trump’s popularity between voters of different ages and background becomes apparent when voters were asked what they think of the president’s handling of the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Non-whites and college graduates comprise a sizeable portion of the anti-Trump base on this matter, with 68 percent of non-whites and 60 percent of college graduates disapproving of how he is dealing with the election scandal.

For comparison, most Trump voters remain loyal to the president, and 58 percent of them approve of his conduct.

But, if Trump is asked by Mueller to testify under oath, 68 percent of Americans believe that he should comply while 24 percent say he shouldn’t.

The poll was conducted by phone and has a sampling error of 3.7 percent.